The Plan:
Day 1: Sloppy Joes, Slow cooker applesauce
Day 2: Minestrone soup
Day 3: Homemade pizza with pesto
Day 4: Easy gluten free meatballs with homemade pasta sauce
Day 5: Tuna salad with radish and carrots, Orange slices
Day 6: Veggie and egg scramble (daikon radish, frozen peppers)
Day 7: Creamy carrot soup, Corn muffins
Pantry Shuffle:
Out of Storage: (preserved when in season and coming out of my root cellar, freezer, canned, or dehydrated stash)
- Ground beef and ground pork from Mastodon Valley Farm meat share (from freezer)
- Apples (from refrigerator “root cellar”)
- Celeriac root (from root cellar)
- Carrots (from root cellar)
- Potatoes (from root cellar)
- Tomatoes (diced and frozen in zip top bags in fall)
- Corn (cut from cob and frozen in zip top bags in summer)
- Green beans (cut and frozen in zip top bags in summer)
- Vegetable broth (homemade from scraps and frozen in zip top bags)
- Cannellini beans (made from dried supply and frozen in zip top bags)
- Homemade pesto (frozen in summer/fall in repurposed Talenti Gelato containers)
- Homemade pasta sauce (frozen in zip top bags in summer/fall)
- Daikon radish (from root cellar)
- Bell peppers (diced and frozen in zip top bags in fall)
Into Storage:
- Meatballs (freeze in zip top bags for easy grab and go lunch/snacks)
- Corn muffins (freeze in zip top bags for easy grab and go lunch/snacks)
Notes: Phone a friend for meal ideas
This week I am making minestrone soup, which is typically one of my summertime or fall recipes. I had completely forgotten about this recipe until I was talking to a friend who recently made homemade minestrone soup to use up some of her frozen produce. I love it!
Minestrone soup is one of those recipes that you can throw in just about any vegetable and get delicious results. So I am going to add my frozen corn, frozen green beans, frozen diced tomatoes, and some potatoes that are getting eyes, plus my secret ingredient that adds tons of flavor (see recipe).
This encounter with my friend also reminded me to “phone a friend” for meal ideas and recipes when I’m in a slump. I’ve been homecooking for well over a decade now, but I still need to use my communities to keep things fresh. Let’s lean on each other for ideas!
If you don’t have many friends who do a lot of homecooking or use seasonal ingredients, I hope this blog is helpful to you! You can also check out my bookshop for recommendations of cookbooks for seasonal eating and cooking with vegetables. If you belong to a CSA, the farm may also have a good recipe archive. I’ve used lots of recipes from Crossroads Community Farm and, in fact, post some on Green Life Philosophy!
